HELENA – Senior guard Bailey Pasta parked the Saints with 18 points and the No. 13 Carroll College women's basketball team locked down No. 19 Providence, 59-47, in a Frontier Conference game on Thursday night at the PE Center.

“I think the biggest thing was we just came out aggressive and we got after them,” Saints coach Rachelle Sayers said. “We were able to force some turnovers and get some easy buckets.”

Providence (16-6, 7-4) built a 10-point lead in the first half, but after the Saints’ slow start, they started to make amends. Pasta hit a 3-pointer to end the first quarter, and the Saints (16-6, 8-3) started to slow down the Argonauts.

Carroll’s aggression led to Argonauts turnovers. Those turnovers jumpstarted the offense. That, and a nice 50-percent shooting clip from the field and 53 percent mark from the 3-point line.

“The turnovers were definitely a problem tonight,” Providence coach Bill Himmelberg said. “That’s been kind of an issue for us at times in the year. Tonight, 22 turnovers. We’re not going to be in a good position to win. We have 10 less turnovers, shooting 40 percent from the field, we’re right there.”

Carroll and Providence were largely evenly matched, but it was the Saints that outscored Providence in every quarter except the first.

Every guard for Carroll started the second half by knocking down a jump shot.

Jaidyn Lyman, the shortest player on the court, then improbably finished a layup with three defenders around her in transition and the Saints were rolling. They stayed aggressive going to the hoop, too, in the second half.

“We just said we have to fly around more,” Sayers said. “We have to be more aggressive. When we have Bailey, Brit and Jaidyn in there we’re not very big. We said you have to get after it. You have to use your speed and pressure.”

Carroll got its flow going in the second half and Providence had some issues. Carroll found open 3-point shooters and hit 10 of 19 deep balls.

TOP PERFORMERS

Pasta went 7-for-14 from the field and scored a game-high 18 points, adding in four rebounds and three steals.

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Brittney Johnson connected on 3 of 5 3-pointers and went 4 of 6 overall to also crack double figures for the Saints with 11 points. She had a team-high four assists.

Lyman scored nine points and had a team-high four steals.

Stephanie McDonagh shot 6 of 12 from the field to lead the Argonauts with 15 points and added in six rebounds and five assists.

STATS THAT STAND OUT

The aforementioned 22 turnovers. The Argonauts coughed the ball up too much and Carroll took advantage.

NEXT UP

The Saints host Montana State-Northern on Saturday. Providence travels to Billings to take on Rocky Mountain College.

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